Phonetics and E.S.L for Spanish-speaking 1st an

1. English phonetics: historical background

Phonetics is the "study of phonic substance and its function in spoken language" (Finch, 1982). Phonetics as a field of study is quite recent. What we know of the beginnings of the English period to the early thirteenth century is based on the testimony of orthographic representations. For those six hundred years, we have no information concerning the pronunciation habits of its language users, other than the orthographic notations used to represent them. From the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries we find an enormous quantity of written material which, to this day, "paradoxically bewilder the historical phonologist" (Jones, 1989). Tons of rhyming verses provide us with at least some testimony to contemporary phonology. A quite extensive variation in orthographic practice supplies the key to some pronunciation.

From the sixteenth through the eighteen centuries, the "level of 'direct' evidence increases dramatically; it shows sophisticated and advanced views on the speech habit of real speakers" (Jones, 1989). Jones (1989) calls the period between the eighteenth century and today, the "Cinderellas of English historical linguistic study."

Until but forty or fifty years ago, phonologists concerned themselves mostly with the study of dialects. It is only with the advent of sociolinguistic research that contemporary language mutation has come to be a ma

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nguistic behavior has its origins in a general social communication system to which a formal lexicon and grammar are ultimately added" (Urz·a, 1980). This is where the young child differs markedly from the older child and is the main reason why teaching/learning methodologies need differ. 5. Phonetic methodology "A gradual erosion of the theoretical bases for the audio-lingual approach began in the 1950s with the inception of cognitive explanations of learning and the introduction of Chomsky's rationalist views of language...The theories behind grammar-translation and audio-lingual approaches no longer have the support they once did...Cognitive theoreticians hold that the internal, mental knowledge and processes of the learner are the most important variables in learning. The student rather than the teacher, text, or physical facilities, is thought to be the major variable influencing achievement." (Chastain, 1988). To most psychologists today, the locus of learning resides in the learner, and therefore teaching/learning methods must be learner-centered as opposed to the traditional teacher-centered instructional methodology. The audio-lingual (or aural-oral) approach is characterized by an emphasis on aural stimuli. It is
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